Sunday, October 31, 2010

A Muslim land owner in Pakistan this month subjected a 25-year-old Christian to burns and a series of humiliations, including falsely charging him with having sex with his own niece, because the Christian refused to work for him without pay.

The 22-year-old woman, named locally as Hanan al Samawi, was traced through a phone number left with a cargo company. Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen's president, said the information that identified her was provided by the US and the United Arab Emirates.

She was arrested at a house in a poor area in the west of Sana'a, where she is studying medicine at the university. Her mother was also arrested, but is not a prime suspect according to her lawyer.

...US and British security officials believe Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born figurehead of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) was behind the foiled attack in which two ink cartridge bombs, posted in Yemen, were intercepted in Britain and Dubai on the way to America.

...In Sana'a, authorities were also questioning cargo workers at the airport and employees of shipping companies contracted to work with the freight companies FedEx and UPS.

While the devices were addressed to synagogues in Chicago, Theresa May, the Home Secretary, was the first to announce that the target for the bombs could have been the planes.

Have this year's negative political ads really "taken dirty to a whole new level, as CNN's Anderson Cooper frets? Is a "return to civility...a relic of a bygone era," as President Barack Obama laments?

Er, not exactly.

If anonymous political speech, the other widely decried villain of this political season, helped found the United States, attack ads are as American as apple pie. If you fancy yourself a patriot or a history buff, you will most certainly approve this message, which is taken from statements made by, for, and against the nation's founders. For historical sources, go here.

At least Gaza is not included in those four, but still--it cannot be setting a good precedent. After all, we expect the UN to turn a blind eye to terrorism and the abuse of children brainwashed into becoming terrorists.

You would think that in the Middle East it would not be that big of a deal for a country to pass a bill banning fur--but you would be wrong:

On paper, passing such a bill shouldn't be very hard in Israel, with its hot climate, seriously informal dress code and teeny fur trade. And nearly 80% of the people support the initiative, according to public opinion polls. But when presented last year, the proposed legislation hit an unexpected snag: ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Speaking at a National Council for US-Arab Relations conference last week, Whitley, who heads United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said that Palestinian refugees needed to start "debating their own role in the societies where they are rather than being left in a state of limbo where they are helpless."

The British journalist Peter Hitchens recently published an article about his visit to Gaza and the West Bank.

He wrote: ‘The true state of the Gaza Strip and of the West Bank is so full of paradoxes and surprises that most of the news coverage of the Middle East finds it easier to concentrate on the obvious and to leave out the awkward bits’.
Hitchens’ article was one of those rare things: an analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that was honest.

I was reminded of the tenor of Hitchens’ words this week when I had three encounters, each of which underlined the paradoxes of daily reality in Israel.

And I say in front of you, Mr. President, that we have nothing to do with incitement against Israel, and we’re not doing that. What we care about is to live in coexistence with Israel, in order to bring about the independent Palestinian state that will live side by side with Israel in peace and stability.

Palestinian Media Watch has posted this excerpt of the latest attempt by the Palestinian Authority of create just the right atmosphere to make it possible to live in coexistence with Israel in peace and stability (if video does not appear, click here):

The last man nearly ruined this place, he didn't know what to do with it.
If you think this country's bad off now, just wait 'til I get through with it.Duck Soup

The lines from the above song could just as well have been sung by Abbas in reference to Arafat and himself--and I'm sure that any similarity between the West Bank and Freedonia is purely coincidental.

But there is a Marxist (Groucho, not Karl) logic in the threat by Abbas and friends to declaring a Palestinian state.

The greatness of our democracy is grounded in our ability to move beyond our differences, and to learn from our experience as we confront the many challenges ahead.Obama, Remarks by the President in Address to the Nation on the End of Combat Operations in Iraq, August 31, 2010

Go ahead, take another look at that deceptively simple sentence and try to delve into its hidden depths.

That single sentence encapsulates Obama’s commitments to deliberative democracy and pragmatism, the signature features of the approach to American history and politics he adopts in his writings and his speeches.

Iran is far from alone in locking up bloggers. Governments across the Middle East are increasingly twitchy about their citizens’ online activities. As internet use in the region has soared—up 19-fold since 2000, compared with a fivefold rise in the rest of the world, according to Internet World Stats, which monitors global internet usage—so the number jailed for what they do on the web has shot up too.

How should American voters concerned with Israel's welfare and security vote in the U.S. Congressional elections on Nov. 2?

This much is clear after almost two years of Democratic control over the executive and legislative branches of government: Democrats consistently support Israel and its government far less than do Republicans. Leaving Barack Obama aside for now (he's not on the ballot), let's focus on Congress and on voters.

Obama's waiver, issued Wednesday, follows in the footsteps of predecessors Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, who also extended the waiver every six months since the law was adopted in 1995 calling for the move of the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Presidents are permitted to delay the move on national security grounds.

Some Jewish groups have pushed for the United States to move the embassy as a way to bolster Israeli claims to the city. Those favoring the use of the waiver say that such a step would anger the Arab world and put the United States in the position of taking sides on an issue that should be settled in peace talks.

But now Obama has added one of his own--and he wonders why his Mideast peace talks lies in shambles:

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Leaders of Judea and Samaria are warning of a "silent, de facto building freeze."

Naftali Bennet, director-general of the Yesha Council, has reported that "The cities of Judea and Samaria are effectively frozen. The government has promised to stop the freeze, yet it is continuing it."

The focus of the Jewish community has naturally been on Obama's Middle East policies and his relationship with and pressure on Netanyahu. Chicago attorney Pejman Yousefzadeh writes about another issue, one that has not received much attention: Obama And Anti-Semitism:

The inability or unwillingness of the Obama Administration to forcefully speak out against instances of anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party should also be a cause for concern. The demagoguery of Democrats like Rep. James Moran, who has stated that an “extraordinarily powerful” pro-Israel lobby—with “the strong support of the Jewish community”—was responsible for causing the United States to go to war with Iraq, is well known, but the Obama Administration has not decided to challenge him, or other Democrats like him, for seeking to profit politically from the popularization of anti-Semitic tropes. Nor has the administration taken on members of the liberal blogosphere for engaging in reflexive anti-Israel hatred and general anti-Semitism and for potentially causing a serious rift between liberals and American Jews, a rift that would harm the president’s political prospects and the Democratic Party’s electoral future.

Another Washington Middle East hand who consults closely with the administration said he too has started to hear growing rumors in recent days of a possible official administration role on the Middle East peace process for Indyk. Under the arrangement that was described to that Middle East hand, the NSC's Dennis Ross would capitalize on his decent ties with Israel's Bibi Netanyahu to be a main administration point of contact with the Israelis, Indyk would capitalize on his good ties with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (universally referred to as Abu Mazen) to be a channel to the Palestinians, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would be in charge.

The uproar over Israel's proposed loyalty oath for new immigrants has sparked renewed debate over whether Israel's insistence on being a "Jewish state" violates the principles of western democracy. Critics claim that by identifying the country with Jewish symbols, such as the Star of David or menorah, having its national anthem relate to the Jewish yearning for a "return to Zion" and granting Jews automatic citizenship through the Law of Return, Israel is verging on theocratic ideals and rudely affronts its non-Jewish citizens. Israel is not a theocracy, however; it is governed by the rule of law as drafted by a democratically elected parliament and enforced by a highly praised judicial system.

Israeli law adheres to many Jewish religious customs and is largely informed by Jewish values, but this structure makes it no different than other democracies that shape themselves around Christian or Islamic traditions.

And I say in front of you, Mr. President, that we have nothing to do with incitement against Israel, and we’re not doing that. What we care about is to live in coexistence with Israel, in order to bring about the independent Palestinian state that will live side by side with Israel in peace and stability.

Jerusalem – As the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) begins its review process in Geneva, NGO Monitor calls on international human rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to hold the Council responsible for its failure to properly protect universal human rights.

The HRC was established in March 2006 (resolution 60/251) after the Human Rights Commission was deemed ineffective due to its failure to address human rights abuses and obsessive focus on Israel. At that time, the UN General Assembly decided that the Council would review its work and functioning five years after it has come into existence. That review process currently is underway, but unfortunately, little has changed.

I actually find Obama's ratcheting-down of the rhetoric refreshing and possibly useful, but Gerecht makes an interesting counter-argument:

Does How do you approach the problem of Islamic militancy in the West and in the Middle East? President Obama, who has had innumerable briefings on the threats posed by al-Qaeda and other radical Islamic groups, has chosen to dial down American rhetoric (it was actually pretty tame under President George W. Bush) in the hope that average Muslims, wherever they may be, will view the United States as more friend than foe, and help Washington combat "violent extremism."

The Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, announces the new plan, “IDF Protects the Environment”, to the sum of one billion NIS tomorrow, during the inauguration ceremony of the Officer Instruction Base as the first “green base” in the IDF.

:[M]ost observers believe that prospects for accommodation and engagement between the United States and Hezbollah are slim, even as the group’s close relationships with Syria and Iran, its pivotal role in Lebanese politics, and reinvigorated U.S. engagement in regional peace efforts increase Hezbollah’s potential influence over stated U.S. national security objectives. The Obama Administration is requesting $246 million in FY2011 foreign assistance to continue a multi-year program specifically designed to increase the central authority of the state and deter the use of force by non-state actors. Since FY2006, the United States has provided more than $1.35 billion in assistance for Lebanon.

The fundamental problem is the assumption that complex reality can be known by reading online newspapers. It can't, of course. If you wish to understand a society and gauge its potential policies, following the media is perhaps better than nothing but that doesn't say much. You need to know the language, and the codes in the language, and the body language (which can't be reproduced in the media at all, not even on television, unless you already know how to read it). You need to read the literature (as in novels, not professional literature), stand in line at the bank, interact with officials and medical personnel, and go to some weddings and funerals. In other words, you need to live there, as part of the society you're trying to understand; and you need to keep in mind that other people around you who are doing the same may well understand the same society in different ways, depending on who they are and where they're coming from.

Douglas J. Feith addresses the issue of Israel as both a Jewish and Democratic state. While the US--along with Canada, Australia and New Zealand--are liberal democracies that ignore ethnic, religious or regional identities, the fact remains that most countries do not:

The democracies of Europe and East Asia and those in the former republics of the Soviet Union, meanwhile, tend to cluster on the ethnic side of the spectrum. Numerous laws and institutions in those nations favor a country's principal ethnic group but are nevertheless accepted as compatible with democratic principles. Christian crosses adorn the flags of Switzerland, Sweden, Greece and Finland, among other model democracies, and the United Kingdom's flag boasts two kinds of crosses.

Fast-food giant McDonald's has admitted selling halal chicken without telling its customers. The poultry was used in popular menu items such as Chicken McNuggets and the McChicken Sandwich in its 1,200 British outlets.

The admission comes three weeks after the company categorically denied to this newspaper that it used any halal meat. Now McDonald's has revealed that the firm that supplies its poultry, Cargill, produces halal chicken at one of its abattoirs.

A preliminary geological survey has indicated that there might be about 26 million barrels of recoverable oil a mile under the sand near two kibbutzim in the northern Negev. That would amount to about $2 billion at current prices. There might be 12 million additional barrels further down.

As Jonathan Pollard nears the completion of his 25th year in prison his former handler and former Israeli Cabinet Minister, Rafi Eitan, reveals for the first time that a secret deal was made with the US at the time of Pollard's arrest and conviction that he would serve no more than 10 years. Eitan states that the US broke a solemn commitment and instead is keeping Pollard in prison forever to serve another unrelated agenda.

Europe strongly condemned Iran's president on Thursday for saying Israel should be wiped out and said the call raised concerns about the aims of a country the West suspects is planning to build an atomic bomb.

..."Calls for violence, and for the destruction of any state, are manifestly inconsistent with any claim to be a mature and responsible member of the international community," EU leaders said in a statement issued at a one-day summit outside London.

"Such comments will cause concern about Iran's role in the region, and its future intentions," they said.Reuters, October 2005

Meanwhile, 5 years later, The Israel Project has collected 81 quotes from Ahmadinejad from over the years--most of them dealing with Israel. Nothing has changed--except that neither Europe, nor anyone else for that matter, bothers to condemn what Ahmadinejad says anymore.

The center-piece of this video is a speech by Dr. Hagai
Ben-Artzi, brother-in-law of Prime Minister Netanyahu. Hagai speaks with
passion about Jonathan Pollard and his devotion to the Land and People of
Israel and of his selflessness and principled unwillingness to be freed in
any deal that might put Jewish lives at stake by the release of murderers
and terrorist or the uprooting of Jews from their homes. Ben-Artzi's words
are heart-rending as he calls upon his brother-in-law PM Netanyahu not to
abandon a soldier in the field, to finish the job and bring Pollard home
now!

Worthy of Note: Video includes interesting foootage of the recent 9000-Day
Vigil for Jonathan Pollard that was recently held in a 3 day marathon at
Gesher HaMeitarim in Jerusalem. Recognizable, for the most part, by all the
Pollard 9000-days-in-captivity banners and signs.

In a separate part of the document -- a section on cooperation with Jews -- the synod fathers took issue with Jews who use the Bible to justify settlements in the West Bank, which Israel captured in 1967.

Here is a video of an interview with John "Israel Lobby" Mearsheimer during Yearly Kos 2007, where he dismisses the killing of American soldiers by Iran as "a small percentage" and the result of "disingenuous arguments" by the Bush administration.

Based on the Wikipedia leaks, it seems that Mearsheimer is the disingenuous one.
Who knew!?

Saturday, October 23, 2010

There may be good reasons for granting clemency to Jonathan Pollard, the former Navy intelligence analyst who was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for providing U.S. military documents to Israel. But Pollard's usefulness as a diplomatic bargaining chip isn't one of them.

Friday, October 22, 2010

This week, Jewish Italian MP Fiamma Nirenstein was reconfirmed in Italy as Vice President of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Nirenstein was also appointed by Italian Foreign Minister Frattini to be an official consultant on Israel and the international Jewish communities.

The following article is by Dr. Mitchell Bard and is reposted with permission.
You can view the article online with all of the hyperlinks here

MYTH: "The Palestinians can pressure Israel to negotiate on their terms by unilaterally declaring statehood."

FACT:

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad announced in early 2010 his intention to declare an independent Palestinian state in the summer of 2011 irrespective of whether or not a peace agreement is signed with Israel. Angered by Israel's unwillingness to capitulate to demands for an extended settlement moratorium, the Palestinian Authority is now threatening to seek recognition by the UN of a Palestinian state based on the 1949 armistice lines (i.e., the pre-1967 frontier).407

During a meeting of bishops at the Vatican, it became clear that others are also somewhat afraid of Muslims:

The Koran is a text that encourages Islam to impose itself with force and permits the killing of Christians, said Lebanon's Catholic Patriarch of Antioch Archbishop Raboula Beylouni, addressing a Vatican meeting of Middle East bishops.

The Obama administration has announced plans to sell $60 billion worth of military equipment and services, the largest weapons sale in U.S. history, to Saudi Arabia, a country that supports terrorists who seek our destruction, violates the human rights of its citizens, believes Jews are apes and Christians are pigs and obstructs American efforts to facilitate a Middle East peace agreement. Though the sale may be couched in terms of national security, no one should be fooled that this is anything but a political gambit to allow Obama to claim credit for saving or creating thousands of jobs in the defense industry.

The administration claims this sale is needed to prove the U.S. is committed to Saudi security and to bolster their ability to defend themselves against unspecified threats. This has been the mantra of administrations for decades, but has always been a lie.

But does the sale of weapons help Saudi Arabia defend itself? Among the points that Bard makes:

CNSnews.com reports on a report released by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs that reveals that the inequality of women in Muslim countries goes way beyond the burqa--statistics show women fare badly under Islam

On Wednesday, the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) released another major report, also dealing with the status of women around the world in 2010. The numerous indicators explored in the report include the rate of girls of primary school age enrolled in school, compared to that of boys.

The dispute between Israel and the Palestinian Authority with regard to the freezing of Israeli construction in Judea and Samaria (aka the West Bank) is predicated on the assumption that Israel’s border is the ’67 line – called the Green Line – that pertained before the Six Day War. The Palestinian claim, broadly accepted by the international community, is that everything on the other side is rightfully theirs.

There is, however, an essential problem with this: The Green Line was never Israel’s border, but rather a temporary armistice line.

WASHINGTON, DC: On October 21, 2010, the Center for Security Policy sent urgent alert notices to Juan Williams, news analyst for Fox News and recently fired news analyst for National Public Radio (NPR); Vivian Schiller, President and CEO, NPR; Roger Ailes, President, Fox News Channel; Bill O'Reilly, Fox News Channel; and the Inspector General of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), regarding a possible violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), warning that they may have been the target of an influence operation by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) which resulted in the firing of Williams.

Records of the meeting between the heads of the flotilla two weeks prior to embarkation and other similar documents were found on laptop computers confiscated by the Israel Defense Forces.

Data found on a laptop of a passenger of last May’s Gaza bound flotilla indicates that the flotilla’s organizers received assistance from the highest levels of the Turkish government, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Edogan and other senior government officials.

A bomb ripped through a passenger bus Thursday in the southern Philippines, killing at least 10 people and wounding nine in an attack authorities say may have been carried out by an extortion gang with links to Muslim militants.

As gross human-rights violations continue to plague much of our planet, the U.N.’s lead human-rights body, the Human Rights Council, remains fixated on Israel, leaving the Obama administration in need of a strategy for justifying its policy of “engagement,” and particularly American membership in the HRC. The new strategy of choice? Misrepresentation. The State Department has posted on its website an account, photo and all, of HRC action on an egregious human-rights violation — action that didn’t happen.

Israelis, Palestinians leaders agree to continue talks through U.S. elections

The Obama administration has secured pledges from senior Mideast leaders to continue their fitful peace negotiations until after next month's U.S. midterm elections, largely to avoid handing the Obama administration an embarrassing diplomatic setback before the Nov. 2 elections.

As the American midterm election campaigns head to the finish line, the Obama administration is trying to convince Jewish voters that its treatment of Israel is not as hostile as it appears. In fact, it’s worse. The U.S. State Department has now adopted a practice honed by Israel’s Arab negotiating partners – saying different things to different audiences. The State Department is distributing for American consumption speeches that it claims were delivered in Israel’s defense at the recent session of the U.N. Human Rights Council. But the remarks American diplomats actually delivered to the U.N. audience, which President Obama so desperately seeks to impress, were strikingly different.

Palestinian Authority leaders are now saying that they will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state because that would mean that they would have to give up the "right of return" for millions of Palestinians to their original homes inside Israel.

These leaders are actually continuing to deceive the refugees into believing that one day they will be permitted to move into Israel.

Quebec’s Orthodox Jewish community appeared for the first time on Wednesday before a National Assembly committee, taking up an unexpected cause – fighting a bill that would ban the wearing of the Muslim niqab when receiving government services.

In his introduction, Calvert presents Qutb as a supremely moral being. He was bent on propagating Allah’s message to humanity, and that message was beneficent and moral.Benny Morris, in his review of John Calvert's Sayyid Qutb and the Origins of Radical Islamism

In his review, Qutb and the Jews, Benny Morris describes Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), the subject of Calvert's book, as, "the major ideologue of modern, ultraviolent Islamic fundamentalism"--so at a time when the current explanation for the Israel-Arab conflict is that it is an issue over land, it is helpful to see what Qutb has to say.

Calvert is straightforward about Qutb's overall goal:

Qutb, says Calvert, saw jihad as the instrument of an essentially expansionist Islam. “For Qutb, as for the classical jurists, it is important that Islam be elevated to a position of power over [all] the peoples of the earth.”

That is a description that does not necessarily fit with Calvert's claim that "Qutb never would have sanctioned the killing of civilians, which several of the militant groups committed."

Be that as it may, when it comes to Qutb and the Jews, Morris writes that Calvert is even more oblivious:

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

The following article no longer appears on Reuters, at least not completely--all that is left is the headline of the article, but I think it is worth remembering the time a human right group complained about international law violations in the Middle East and the UN did nothing.

GAZA, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Hamas and Fatah committed "grave breaches" of international law in their brief civil war in the Gaza Strip in June, a Palestinian human rights group said on Tuesday, detailing a series of extra-judicial killings.

oNo Palestinian State: "We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority."

oNo return to '67 borders: "The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines."

oControl of Jordan Valley: "The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term."

oGush Katif as model: "The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif."

oAll settlements remain intact during interim period: "I want to remind you:we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth."

Behind the scenes, the Obama administration is still absorbing the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has to date rejected a proposed American compromise package that would have offered various security and other assurances to Israel in exchange for a 60-day renewal of a partial West Bank settlement freeze that expired last month.

The American team is said to be frustrated and upset at Netanyahu’s dismissal to date of the package, which was drafted by the NSC’s Dennis Ross in close consultation with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Israeli negotiator Yitzhak Molho.

“They’re really upset,” one Washington Middle East hand in close contact with administration officials said Tuesday. “At the end of the day, they made this incredibly good faith effort to keep Bibi at the table.” And Bibi proved as yet unwilling to budge.

The Obama administration has secured pledges from senior Mideast leaders to continue their fitful peace negotiations until after next month's U.S. midterm elections, largely to avoid handing the Obama administration an embarrassing diplomatic setback before the Nov. 2 elections.

Everyone in Qom, get out your cell phones and cameras, because the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei wants you to send him your videos and pictures of him when he visits today so that he can post them on his website.

Throughout the years of Israel’s existence there has been war. Victorious wars, and also wars which Israel was not allowed to win. Each and every day – literally every day – there is the expectation of a terrorist act or a new war.”Elena Bonner, Sakharov’s widow

"Breaking the Silence": An Israeli NGO established by former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers and veterans who collected testimonies about their military service in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem during the Second Palestinian Intifada. It gives serving and discharged Israeli personnel and reservists a platform to describe their experiences in the Israeli-occupied territories. The group is being nominated by the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) and the Confederal Group of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL).

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Exactly one year ago today, October 19th, 2009, Zach and I started this blog to study the Huffington Post and its users. From our humble beginnings at the Brothers of Judea, to our namechange about two months ago, to where we are today.

But don't worry, while they thank the bloggers who have helped them and their reader, they don't forget to thank the people who really make their blog possible:

And, of course, thank you to the Huffington Post, their biased editors and their plethora of Israel-hating users, without which we would not have anything to talk about.

It's so important to give thanks where thanks is due, don't you think?

That is the assumption that is always made, namely that there is a peace partner--a moderate, peace partner--on the other side of the table ready and willing to make peace with Israel. Not only that, but it is also assumed that there is a significant number of peace-seeking Arabs who similarly support peace with Israel.

Welcome to the 21st century where such assumptions can actually be put to the test.

This past April, Foundation for Defense of Democracies hired ConStrat, to assess how Palestinian Arabs feel about peace with Israel--and other issues--based on various kinds of Arabic posts found on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, wikis, and RSS feeds. The fact that the posts could be written anonymously or with pseudonyms encouraged the people posting them to write openly about how they really felt.

For 15 years and more, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas conducted peace talks with Israel in the absence of a freeze on Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Now, it appears as likely as not that his newborn negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu -- and their goal of agreement on a Palestinian state within a year -- will die because of Abbas's refusal to continue without such a freeze.

All of which raises the question why now. I've read some who claim that the Arabs have merely changed their mind and decided to make this an issue.

"In 1926, Lord Plumer was appointed as the second High Commissioner of Palestine. The Arabs within the Mandate were infuriated when Plumer stood up for the Zionists' national anthem Hatikva during ceremonies held in his honor when Plumer first visited Tel Aviv. When a delegation of Palestinian Arabs protested Plumer's 'Zionist bias,' the High Commissioner asked the Arabs if he remained seated when their national anthem was played, 'wouldn't you regard my behavior as most unmannerly?' Met by silence, Plumer asked: 'By the way, have you got a national anthem?' When the delegation replied with chagrin that they did not, he snapped back, "I think you had better get one as soon as possible." [1]

Geoffrey Alderman is an academic and journalist specialising in modern British and European history and British and American politics. He is an internationally acknowledged authority on voting behaviour, pressure groups and the impact of religious and ethnic groups on political life. He has also written extensively on problems of quality and standards in university education.

And he is also being targeted by groups that are nominally interested in the protection of free speech.

President Barack Obama congratulated Archbishop Desmond Tutu on his official retirement, praising him for the extensive list of accomplishments in his decades-long career.

"For decades he has been a moral titan -- a voice of principle, an unrelenting champion of justice, and a dedicated peacemaker," Obama said in a written statement.

The president praised Tutu for his crucial role in South Africa's anti-apartheid movement and reconciliation. The archbishop has also been involved in speaking out on issues such as gay rights, HIV/AIDS prevention, and freedom and justice around the world.

While the good that Tutu did is undeniable, there is another side to him that should not be overlooked--his anti-Israel bias, as reflected in the outrageous things that Tutu has said over the years about Israel (from an article that is now longer online but is archived here)

With the clear aim of sending a message to terrorists, US President Barack Obama is expected to stay overnight at Taj Hotel in Mumbai and tour other 26/11 targets when he undertakes a visit to India next month.

FreznoZionism.org notes the intense interest in the story of the 33 Chilean miners who were recently rescued--and offers a contrast between the Chilean miners and Gilad Shalit:

The 33 Chilean miners were underground for 69 days. Much of the world focused its attention on them, while no effort or cost was spared to get them out into the light after the nightmarish accident that buried them.

Gilad Shalit has been underground for one thousand, five hundred and seventy-four days today (he was taken on June 25, 2006).

20. Remember Moses said to his people: "O my people! Call in remembrance the favour of Allah unto you, when He produced prophets among you, made you kings, and gave you what He had not given to any other among the peoples.

21. "O my people! Enter the holy land which Allah hath assigned unto you, and turn not back ignominiously, for then will ye be overthrown, to your own ruin." [emphasis added]

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has opposed the Obama Administration for funding Palestinian construction projects in Judea and Samaria while at the same time demanding and publicly pressuring Israel to stop all Jewish construction in the same areas. This is despite the fact that Israel is only building within the boundaries of existing Jewish communities, which comprise only 4%-5% of the disputed areas of Judea and Samaria.

Canada lost out to Portugal after Portugal's natural ally, Brazil, lobbied Islamic countries with warnings that Canada's vote on Israel-related issues would be no different than that of the United States. Portugal, the argument went, would be more "balanced."

Hana Makhmalbaf, a 21 year old Iranian director, brings the bloody street protests after June’s presidential vote to the big screen in the Venice film festival.

Her film, “Green Days,” focuses on the run-up to the election on the streets of Tehran and features interviews with ordinary young people, mostly supporters of opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. The film blends a fictional storyline with a reaction to the swirling events surrounding Iran’s disputed presidential election.

The film features raw footage of the swelling protests by Mousavi’s green-clad sympathizers after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared winner and their brutal repression by security forces. Some of the images were shot with mobile phones by the demonstrators, as the government imposed restrictions on independent and foreign media. Hana Makhmalbaf said she had to leave Iran after the vote because the government wanted to arrest her. She finished editing the film at a secret location in Italy to avoid Iranian censorship.

QUESTION: P.J., do you recognize Israel as a Jewish state and will you try to convince the Palestinians to recognize it?

MR. CROWLEY: We will continue our discussions with the parties. I would expect, following up on the Arab League meetings of late last week that George Mitchell will go to the region at some point. I’m not announcing anything, but I – it would be logical for us to follow up directly with the parties, see where they are. We will offer our ideas on – based on our conversations what our assessment is that – of what each side needs to be able to make the political commitment to remain in these direct negotiations.

The Housing and Construction Ministry, along with the Israel Lands Administration, released its list of 3,500 newly approved tenders set for construction across the country.

The list includes 150 residential buildings in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot and another 80 in Pisgat Ze'ev. While both neighborhoods are technically set in the northern part of the city, they are considered East Jerusalem due to their location east of the Green Line.

Nationwide, polls show a growing ambivalence – or even anger – toward Islam among Americans, which has in part explained the opposition to a mosque near ground zero and mosques elsewhere, as well as the aborted mass burning of Korans by a Florida preacher. But subtler, more psychological attacks against Muslims have also become prevalent, say Muslim groups.